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Now is gun shy

My dog was doing fine with guns then my brother shout a firework at him now and Loud noise freaks him out. I have been working with him to try and fix this. I just take the gun out no shooting g around him and he goes and get under something to hideous he remembers what the gun does. I take him to a pond where we train with a 22 and get someone to shoot it wile we are playing fetch to try and let him make the association noise is fun. It seems to be makeover g it worse when I tell him to heal now be almost expects the noise he does not watch it is almost like he expects the shout now. Is there a better way to if this.

That sucks, the only thing I could think is to get a lead and tie him to yah, so he has to face the fear-relax and can't go and hide. I'd take him on walks with the gun, if he shy's use the leash to keep him moving forward, keep at that until he gets tired and calms around the gun, might bring in another working dog to help. Then I'd start bringing his prey drive out with live birds, and start to slowly reintroduce shots at a distance, then bring them closer. With the goal of eventually shooting live birds that he's crazy over. It will probably take awhile to get him over it,Terrible how one stupid act can set you back so far, still hopefully his prey drive will beat it.

Last edited by Hunt'EmUp; 09-27-2013 at 12:33 PM.

"They's Just DAWGS"
"Hunting is a skill to be learned whether you do it early or late it still needs to be learned"
"I train dogs, Not papers"

From experience with gun shy issues (well more gun concerns) start making that shotgun an attachment to your arm in whatever you are doing with your dog. After a little time and the dog gets used to it slowly start introducing it from a distance. Have your gun but have someone else with one too at a distance shoot. Slowly move in until comfortable. You would be amazed at what dogs block out too when live flyers are around. I shoot 5-10 poppers a day to keep my gun concerned dog used to the sounds now so that way I dont run into an issue in the future. Can order 100 Fiochi poppers for $18 at gundogsupply.com. My dog wouldnt run and hide when gun went off would just turn and face other direction and flinch.

Start with a toy cap gun and huge rewards , increase noise levels as the dog allows. If he is used to field marks thrown marks from another person, have them use the cap gun,but not at first,give him a couple marks without the shot .then introduce the cap gun. With the cap gun you are taking away the visual object of the big scary gun, which sounds like he is building anxiety once he SEE's the gun and it escalates... when you do reintroduce the shotgun ,stick with a smaller noise maker ,dont throw the full noise and big gun at him at once...Baby steps...

HuntingDawg , I guess a 209 primer should not be used ? It seems to have the same "crack " sound as a 22 compared to a shotgun "boom"

Your best bet is to send him out to a good trainer such as Bill Murdock at Colonial Farms. ColonialFarmsLLC.com

Ole and Sven are quietly sitting in a boat fishing, chewing and drinking beer when suddenly Sven says, 'I think I'm gonna divorce my wife - she ain't spoke to me in over 2 months.' Ole sips his beer and says, 'Better think it over...women like that are hard to find.'

since no one knows the severity of this,,, PUT ALL GuN FIRE AWAY for a while
Get him pumped on bumpers or birds,,it doesn't matter for now,,,just keep the dam gun fire away from him ,I don't care if its a pea shooter,,, NO gun fire period.
he need's to get as frenzied as he can when he see's a prey object. You can add the obedience in when you read its time to. But not before he is running hard with poppers at a good distance. Then blend every thing in when he pumps up with gun fire and birds or bumpers
Pete

HuntingDawg , I guess a 209 primer should not be used ? It seems to have the same "crack " sound as a 22 compared to a shotgun "boom"

Wrong. The crack of a .22LR bullet (or any other bullet) breaking the speed of sound is completely unnecessary in dog training and can cause adverse effects. Maybe not to all dogs, but a dog that is already severely gun shy does not need to have to deal with the sonic boom of a rifle bullet breaking the speed of sound. A 209 primer is a shotgun primer and therefore is a part of the total sound that emanates from a shotgun blast. I wouldn't shoot a .22 blank over this dog either even though they are used in field trial training. Typically in field trial training (from what little of that I've experienced) a .22 blank is fired from a great distance as an attention getter but up close they are pretty freaking loud. I know that some shotgun loads are faster than the speed of sound but for some reason they do not have the same CRACK of a rifle bullet. There is a reason that silencers only work with subsonic bullets. The explosion of the gunpowder can be silenced with a silencer, but the sound of the bullet breaking the speed of sound cannot and has nothing to do with training a gundog IMO. BTW, I'm not advocating the use of silencers in dog training, just making an illustration. With a 209 primer all of the sound is from gunpowder and that is one kind of sound. With a rifle you have that plus a sonic boom unless you are using subsonic ammo.

I keep away from any-type of Rifle, had an uncle scare the crap out of a 7mt old pup with a rifle. Instant gun shyness, and this Pup had already been out hunting dove opener, sleeping as barrels melted down all round her. Another stupid action to avoid.

The OP might buy some HRC primer loads, they don't make hardly any noise and once he gets the dog back to being comfy around a gun, he should be able to shoot that same shotgun around him and condition him, with birds etc. without excessively freaking him out. Still if I were shooting a shotgun primer, I'd make sure a bird fell, a pocketed clipped wing might work wonders. I used to have my pup chase quail that I tied to a half full water bottle those birds could flush, and not run-fly too far, very exciting and it would be easy to add a primer load to that.

Last edited by Hunt'EmUp; 09-27-2013 at 03:04 PM.

"They's Just DAWGS"
"Hunting is a skill to be learned whether you do it early or late it still needs to be learned"
"I train dogs, Not papers"